The inventive concepts relate to semiconductor memory devices, and more particularly, to a storage device and/or a method of controlling a link state of a communication port of the storage device.
Flash memory devices are widely being used as audio and video data storage medium of information devices such as computers, smart phones, digital cameras, camcorders, voice recorders, MP3 players, handheld PCs, etc.
A typical example of a flash memory-based high capacity storage device includes a solid state drive (SSD). As the use of SSDs explosively increases, the use of the SSDs is variously divided. For example, the use of SSDs may be subdivided into SSDs for servers, SSDs for clients, SSDs for data centers, etc. An SSD interface should be able to provide an optimum speed and optimum reliability based on its use. There are SATA, SAS, etc. as the optimum SSD interfaces that can satisfy that requirement. A SSD that applies a PCIe-based interface is currently being actively studied and applied.
A host device fitted with a SSD may include various computer systems. For example, a SSD may be connected to a server, a data center, or a personal computer (PC). A communication port of a host device and a SSD may be managed in various link states to reduce power consumption. For example, a link state of a communication port may be managed in a full active state where data communication is possible, a standby state where data is only received, or a slip state where a power supply is shut off. However, a control method of a link state that considers power consumption and performance is continuously required for a communication port that uses a serial interface.